Dec 07, 2016

Autodesk ceo Carl Bass responds to a question from a financial analyst during this week's quarterly conference call. Comments are edited for brevity and clarity.

- - -

Financial Analyst: You have some very interesting things to say about your future architecture with the Quantum project. There are numerous references to what you talked about as a common data environment, new [software] architecture, and so forth.

Carl Bass: This goes back a number of years, we have firm belief that engineering software is going to move to the cloud -- all design and engineering software will be in the cloud. We started to demonstrate that with the number of products we talked about some, like BIM 360. We’ve shown kind of the basic architecture with products like Fusion 360, and how they take advantage of the connectivity and the compute power of the cloud.

As I have said before, while everybody is rightfully focused on the business model transition of our existing business and how we are using it to attract new customers, what I think people will be surprised as you look out the next couple of years, is the size of the cloud business that we build, and how we really expands our TAM [total available market].

I have talked in the past about it being a place for collaboration, as well as giving access to virtually unlimited amounts of compute power, which is something our users demand, and so it’s just a natural fit. It's unusual that engineering has been one of the slowest to move to the cloud, but we see lots of evidence of hitting the tipping point, not just in the U.S. but other places in terms of customers willingness to adopt it.

Nov 24, 2016

Following the results of the recent US federal election, the mainstream media was filled with outrage from the elite whose candidate failed to earn sufficient electoral votes.

PacketSled ceo Matt Harrigan, for example, threatened to assassinate the president-elect. On Facebook, and on multiple times. Following his outburst of freedom of expression, he resigned from his job and his company reported him to the Secret Service, whose job is to investigate threats against presidents and presidential candidates. PocketSled's software -- which does continuous monitoring, threat detection, and network forensics -- apparently did not detect the threat of the founder's bellowing on a popular network.

Others from Silly-con Valley tweeted their post-election outrage and disgust at what democracy had delivered. Tech firms, with their Constitution-free T&Cs and click-or-screw-off EULAs, aren't familiar with not getting their way.

Most elite and their mainstream media fellow travelers knew that it was Hilary's turn to rule the country. At least, that's what they kept telling each other and the pollsters. Unless, of course, they happened to read the L.A. Times' polls, which used a different polling method to find that His Trumpness would win. (Most polls use randomly selected people with each poll; LA Times used the same people for each poll. The difference in margin of errors is a fascinating topic to peruse.)

One assumes this was the poll Autodesk ceo Carl Bass was following when he tweeted his disgust in late September, well before the poll day of early November. The prophetic tweet was recently retweeted by engineering.com journalist Roopinder Tara as a reminder that Mr Bass got the prediction right, but...

The Mercury News is the newspaper of record for Silicon Valley, and it put words to the thought that perhaps the tech industry needs to understand what a Republican federal government can do for it. Since then, the Apple ceo has met with the president-elect, as has the head of BET, and others.

Mr Trump, a fellow businessman, has, for example "proposed a 10% repatriation tax on profits of U.S. corporate foreign subsidiaries, down from the statutory 35%." (Source.) Autodesk would, it seems, benefit from a Republican president, as it keeps 86% of its cash and investments offshore (as of July 2016).

Nov 17, 2016

Autodesk yesterday announced the future for some of its software at Autodesk University. (I am not at the show, but have been avidly followed Martyn Day's tweets from yesterday. He is the editor of AEC Magazine out of England.)

A year ago, I predicted that Autodesk would cloud-ify Revit. No big secret; this is a natural progression, from Autodesk's point of view. First AutoCAD was served up remotely (aka AutoCAD 360), then Inventor (aka Fusion 360), then a bunch of other programs that support Revit, such as BIM 360. The elephant in the room was Revit itself.

As Martyn tweeted it, "Revit orig[inally] developed as a point solution, collab[oration] was 2nd thought. Database clunks. Quantum has collab at core."

Yesterday Autodesk announced the cloud version of Revit. The core is Quantum, a centralized database that runs on a multitude of servers (aka "the cloud"). In a series of tweets, Martyn described the environment:

Adesk Quantum uses IP [intellectual property] from across Adesk portfolio. Will use Fusion tech for steel fabrication, all on the cloud backbone

Fusion and Quantum will talk together like inventor and Revit never have been able to before.

Adesk Quantum is pre-alpha, Adesk working with a few firms now. Ask for timeline for wider access - pushing hard, months not years.

[Autodesk] says Quantum will be compatible with Revit as it is. They will work to make that happen. Web and mobile [are] 1st platforms

If your CAD world goes beyond Autodesk, then this new plan sounds familiar. Nearly a decade ago, Dassault Systemes launched V6 of its CAD software. It now uses Enovia as a central database that stores all CAD and other data. There is no file format, making translation from V6 a nightmare -- probably as Dassault intended it. Expect the same for Quantum-based BIM from Autodesk.

Nov 15, 2016

I came across one of my older posts, in which ZWCAD Software Company thanked its staff for the hard work they put in to a ZWCAD conference. Up to 100 employees worked for three months to plan the conference, according to the press release.

Think of the myriad of details involved, such as sourcing name tag holders, choosing menus for meals, booking venue(s), and deciding what to talk about. All along hoping enough people show up to cover the cost, or if the conference is free, to justify the effort.

Photo showing four of the things things that need to be arranged: contracting the video production company, arranging the food for the breaks, collecting material for the hand-out bags, and inviting users and media to attend

Users show up, us media sidle in, and after a day or three, it's over. Look closely and you see the staff trying not to look exhausted by the end. There is not just the looking after of details during the conference, but also a lot of cheerfulness that needs to exuded for that half-week.

With this post, I want to acknowledge the effort event planners put in, with some conference planning beginning six months out. These people work hard on a big project each year, every year!

- - -

The main thing about conferences, just about everyone agrees, is the socializing (others call it networking). Meeting old friends, some of who live a continent away, and making new ones -- some fleeting, others permanent.

Photo showing five programmers, writers, friends (left to right, from Germany, Australia, USA, Canada, and USA) at a pub during a recent conference, who between them have 132 years of CAD experience

Nov 14, 2016

HP last week gave about 70 of us media people a preview of its new Z-series workstation. "Z" means computers meant for users of high-end desktop software, like mechanical CAD design and movie editing. This one is called Z2 Mini G3 -- a riff of Apple's Mac Mini.

HP product managers were pretty huffed up about the angular design (see figure 1), which is a problem for me, because I like rectangular black boxes. The more rectangular and featureless the better, and silent -- like my six-year-old Acer desktop; think monolith from 2001, but fatter.

Nevertheless, I got their reasoning for the angular air vents: it's hard for a piece of paper to cover them up, suffocating the computer that's jam-packed with components and fans.

Indeed, the two of the largest components inside are fans. See figure 2. Two large ones to move lots of air; but also of large size to move that air quietly. A bigger fan turning more slowly is quieter while moving equivalent amounts of air as faster, smaller fans.

Figure 2Inside the Z2 with its two fans

HP made it sound like mounting their new baby on the back of a monitor or on the underside of a desk is a new thing, but VESA mounts have been standard for lots of years now. Look at the back of your monitor; it probably has four holes. That's the VESA mount for ultra-small computers.

HP also made it sound like some other features are brand spanking new advances in the field of workstations, but what they did was adopt laptop technology to a desktop computer. Such as pressing a key (on any brand of USB-connected keyboard) or a mouse to turn on the computer. Another such as: the graphics board is an M model, meaning mobility, meaning laptop. What isn't laptop-y about it at all is its ability to handle six SIX! monitors. See figure 3.

Figure 3The Z2 mini outputting to six monitors

Another laptop issue is how they can walk off the premises. For security, HP offers an optional steel box that encloses the Z2 with a padlock; rotate it by 90 degrees, and the USB ports are blocked, as well. See figure 4.

Figure 4The steel box in which to lock the mini workstation

When it starts shipping in December, the box will come in a base i3 model for US$700 and then offer the following options:

i3, i3, i7, or Xenon CPUs

Integrated Intel HDS 530 or discrete nVideo M620 2GB GFX graphics

Three or four DisplayPort v1.2 ports for monitors

Up to 16GB RAM in two slots

Max single 1.5TB hard drive or SSD drive

Single M.2 slot

Up top five USB 3.0 ports and two Type C ports

Headphone and audio out

Ethernet port, WiFi and Bluetooth v4.2

Optional serial port

Windows 7, 10 or Linux

External power supply

My advice: get at least an i5 CPU in any computer. Good news: the RAM and hard drive are user-replaceable, unlike the products from a certain company whose name starts with A and ends with -PPLE.

Q&A

Q: How is the graphics board upgraded?A: You need to replace the motherboard.

Q: I see no Thunderbolt ports.A: Thunderbolt is not supported.

Q: What kind of serial port is available?A: It is a 9-pin serial port that uses an analog signal that cannot be hacked digitally.

Q: Is the M620 graphic for desktop computers or a mobile GPU?A: It is a new mobile GPU from nVidia.

Q: How does it handle six displays with four ports?A: Two of the six displays are daisy-chained.

Q: How can HJ compete with Apple?A: We are going after CAD-focused designers, who Apple has abandoned, such as users of AutoCAD, Solidworks, Revit, and ArchiCAD.

Q: How does the power-on work?A: The remote power-on function is in the BIOS, and works with any USB keyboard on the market. You can click the mouse or press a key on the keyboard. It is initially disabled in the BIOS so that the computer doesn't exhibit unexpected behavior, so you have to go into the BIOS to turn on the features.

Q: How large is the power adapter?A: There are two power adapters, the same ones as used for some HP laptops. One is 200W for the nVidia graphics and the other 135W for Intel graphics.

Q: Is it difficult to replace the SSD (solid state drive)?A: The memory is the most tool-free part of the system; you need to just remove one screw to replace the hard drive.

Q: What is the noise level on idle?A: 29db at full load and 17db at idle.

Nov 08, 2016

This is the first time since 2001 I've updated my book on CAD management. Back then, it was known as CAD Managers Guidebook and was published by the Onward Press imprint of Delmar Publishing. Now it's know as Best CAD Practices.

Little in these 15 years has changed in our industry. We still wonder about what to name layers, which dimension styles to use, and how to write a manual that catalog's our firm's standards. During the same time, agencies have tweaked their standards, more standards have entered our world (such as related to BIM?), CAD has spread to mobile devices, and it's normal to run two or more CAD systems and/or operating systems in offices.

To thoroughly update this book, I went through all the standards in the earlier text, updated them, added more international standards, added four brand-new chapters, and changed the word "extranet" to "cloud." There's four entirely new chapters, plus significant new content in the others. Here's the table of contents:

Nov 01, 2016

In the last week, a new file format was announced that may be of interest to CAD users.

Pantone File Format

Pantone is the primary North American standard for specifying colors. Kind of like PDF ensures an exact reproduction of a document, Pantone ensures the exact reproduction of specified colors. (Other parts of the world use other color specification standards, such as DIC in Japan.) Using Pantone is easy: you select a color, and then specify the Pantone number. See figure below. Printers and publishers know which exact color to use, making the client happy.

Every color in the Pantone palette is assigned a number

Today, however, computers work with more than just color. There are the real-world modifications to color that effect how it looks, such as surface textures, glossiness, refraction through transparent objects, and reflections. Think about how the same color looks different when used in flat or glossy paint, real or fake leather, the billions of kinds of plastic, flowing fabrics, stained and unstained wood, and metals.

Pantone reacted (a few years late, I would say) by creating a system that records the color given off by the object, and writing a new file format that records the parameters of the color. Their Total Appearance Capture hardware captures the color, while AxF is the compressed file format that records the color for use by other software. It's not a simple process to capture what the eye sees:

The scanner works by flashing different colors of lights at the material at different angles, and then recording the data -- much like a digital camera. See figure below. For example, scan a draped blanket and all the color and texture variations (and even holes) are recoded to the AxF file using RAW format, which can end up consisting of gigabytes of data. (Compression reduces it to megabytes.) Pantone also provides a virtual light booth device, which rotates the original sample while the scanned result rotates synchronously on the monitor.

Oct 31, 2016

Phones, tablets, and even Windows 10 desktop computers have Airplane Mode. Turn it on, and it turns off all of the radios used by the device. This goes back to the day when we were assured that a single cell phone transmission would crash entire airplanes. (Turns out it was an urban myth, not science, like the myth that cell phones cause gasoline pumps to explode into flames.)

So, airplane mode turns off all the radios, such as WiFi, Bluetooth, and cell communications (talk, text, and data). Here is where this mode can be useful on land.

One of my Android tablets accepts SIM cards. I don't have a SIM card in it. The tablet repeatedly warns me in the notification panel that the SIM card is missing. This gets irritating seeing the message pop up regularly. So I do this:

Turn on Airplane Mode. This turns off all the radios.

Turn on WiFi mode. This lets me access the Internet.

With the cell radio turned off, the tablet no longer wonders why the SIM card is missing. And yes, you can can both turned on: Airplane Mode and WiFi. (Not sure if this tip works on iPhones.)

Bonus tip: Use Airplane Mode on any device when it is on batteries. It instantly turns off unneeded radios, saving some power. I do this on my Windows laptop, where it turns off Bluetooth and any other built-in radio that I might not know about. Then I tap the WiFi button to regain Internet access. See figure above.

Oct 30, 2016

Oct 27, 2016

It's not easy for me to take out the number of candies used to vote for the top six features, so I will present them here disregarding the vote numbers. Rember the methodology: roundtable attendees spoke up about their pet peeves, then the entire group was polled as to which was the most "popular." The top six remaining were then available for voting with candies.

Solid Edge users come to the roundtable events with their wish lists, some of them having a nearly a dozen. This session deals with two topics, drafting and translation. The only requests here here were for drawings; there were no requests on translation. As before, comments by the Solid Edge facilitator are prefixed by 'SE'.

- - -

Be able to add technical requirements, such as embedding surface texture symbols and flags in the text. SE: This will be an interesting problem to solve. Russians do that all the time.

Need callouts when we place chamfers on holes.

I want to find the length of a path, and then lock it. When it moves, I don't want the length changing. I want a PMI annotation of the locked length.

Is there a way to save annotation styles on dimensions, like prefixes to dimension text? SE: This is now available in ST9.

SE: If we had a switch in the Drawing View Wizard, such as "I always want to go to the Custom View orientation directly, would that help you? Attendees: Yes.

When bringing in a block or table, we want to snap it to the top. It will not snap to the drawing corners or borders. I would like to snap them to the background of my drawings.

Can we drag to make the Notes and Callouts dialog box larger? Callouts would be the top priority. When we have lots of text, we have to scroll to see it all, and then we miss typos.

In the template, we want to add Flat Pattern as the default for the caption. SE: This is more of style thing than a view. You can capture anything you want as a caption, and than save it as a template. But if we add lots of things to templates, you start having to have lots more templates.

We use some alternate-position assemblies, like a cabinet with doors open and doors closed. But if we drop it into an assembly, it accepts only one of them.

I'd like to rename PMI dimensions with numbers, so I know what the dimension is referring to in the model tree. I can use letters but not numbers. SE: I think you can already rename it, based on the variable name.

I want to change the angle of auto-jog on coordinate dimensions. Also, the distance is very far apart, and sometimes the text goes into outer space because of the spacing. SE: Change the stack pitch in the style. Create a custom style with a smaller value.

My biggest concern is being apply text below a feature control frame. SE: Attach a callout, but turn off the leader.

Architectural symbols. SE: Yah, I know!

The ability to add up columns on parts lists, such as summing the cost column.

We have to deal with another team who is terrible at drafting. Is there a way to remap styles, and then throw out the old ones? They use different templates. SE: You can use style organizer to overwrite stuff. You are looking for style overwrite on file-open? One of the issues is in names clashing as they get replaced.

After an hour-long discussion of using Solid Edge with the cloud and collaboration, attendees to the roundtable voted for the top three requests, and then voted the popularity of the top 3. Attendees used Jolly Ranger candies to indicate their preference. Here is the result:

#3: Group Collaboration on Sync Services (OneDrive, etc) -- this means that the cloud service, like Dropbox, should provide services that appeal to group collaboration needs. It could be that a service already does this, but it seems to me that no one has done the research. I suggested that Solid Edge produce a comparison chart of functions that CAD users and groups would need.

#2: Solid Edge as a Viewer -- this means a free desktop version of Solid Edge that displays 3D models and everything else, and allows measuring. The drawback to this is that it is a big install. (The facilitator noted that Free2D is their most popular download.)

#1: Viewing in the Browser -- this means having a no-plugin viewer that runs in HTML5-compatible Web browsers, kind of like AutoCAD 360 and others. It would allow viewing, measuring, and sharing.

Whereas the sheet metal round table was packed (with a few standing at the back), the cloud and collaboration round table has half the attendance. 'Cloud and collaboration' is not, strictly speaking, a CAD feature. But it is new to Solid Edge, even if it is not new to most users -- using email to collaborate and Dropbox to share drawings.

The facilitator is asking:

Where do you see your company going

How do you use the cloud if you are an independent contractor?

Do you use Dropbox, etc, and how?

Does corporate policy prevent using the cloud?

Is the Internet blocked at your company.

What improvements would you like to see to cloud-enabled Solid Eddge?

Whereas sheet metal is mature and in need of some tweaks, the cloud is new and so there are major issues to address. Here are the responses from attendees, with the 'SE' prefix being the response from the facilitator:

- - -

We would like to see a corporate one-drive area for a group of people. We would like to see selective sync'ing, as well as watermarking on files. Our database is 600GB, you can't sync that! We already pay for an unlimited storage corporate subscription, but we don't want to have to pay more just to get a few more features. SE: You can specify the folder(s) to sync, but not the individual files in the folder (ie, all files are sync'ed).

We usually send drawings as PDFs because it is the lowest common denominator and everyone has the reader. We only send 2D drawings, maybe just one 3D PDF once in a while.

A cloud-based viewer (for Solid Edge) would be useful, so people don't need to install anything. At larger corporations, employees have no authority to install new software on their own. Just send a link and the viewer loads automatically.

SE: What kinds of files would you want to view? Attendee: We want to view 3D models, and measure them; that's the main thing.

We run everything through TeamCenter, we don't segregate things out for individual projects. If a client want's DWG files, we tell them to create their own from TeamCenter.

We are looking for Solid Edge and TeamCenter on the cloud. SE: What does that mean to you? Attendee: I have no idea; I am just here listening. We have 155 licenses of SE but would have maybe 5-6 working on the cloud. The 5-6 are at another company with whom we work. We want them to do their own thing, we just want to get their information. We want to view the parts, mark them up, have them make change, and then use their parts in our assemblies.

The way OneDrive works, it is acts a local file folder for whoever accesses it, and it syncs stuff up and down. We are not using it now, because it does not allow a corporate folder.

We would like a viewer that can measure. Very few of our vendors want to see 3D stuff. If they do, we just send it as a STEP file.

I've love to see the Free2D become a Free-two-and-a-half so that it can display and measure 3D models.

Bringing stuff in we usually use email or download from an FTP server, and then translate it. Now, if you want to talk about translation....! We usually get models in IGES format for the most part. Most of the people we work with don't understand anything about translation, it's like pulling eye teeth trying to figure out settings in their CAD system and its unfamiliar user interface.

SketchUp is a pain in the rear, because we cannot translate it into Solid Edge. SE: People use SketchUp? Attendee: Oh yes.

How does OneDrive work? Say I start working on a file, and then OneDrive wants to sync it, what happens? SE: We lock it so that no one else can edit it. Others can view it, but won't be able to edit it until you are done. There is a note saying that it file is being edited and so is locked.

It is confusing to users, because every cloud service has different features. It might help if Solid Edge provides a recommendation of which one to use -- what would you require for the perfect system. SE: We can't know what each customer wants in capabilities. But our data management system [in SE ST9] works with any cloud service; it provides the management and locking services.

Measure is very important of not just Solid Edge files, but also of downstream files, such as from the laser cutter and DXFs.

We would like viewing and measuring in a browser. SE: The drawback to that is that the model goes outside your firewall, and some companies don't allow that. An alternative is to download a lightweight viewer.

Siemens has changed its development process so that it can accept input from end-users. So they established these roundtables at Solid Edge University to learn what new functions users want. The format is:

Bring ideas to the group, describing how it would benefit users

Open discussion on the idea

Vote on the ideas brought up

(Not allowed: complaints about bugs, because this is only about new features).

I found it fascinating that this is a mature MCAD system, but there are always new ways of designing that users come up with. In the wish lists below, I prefix comments by the Solid Edge staff with 'SE'. Here we go...

In synchronous, I would like to see loft command turned into procedural so the guide path and cross sections can be edited. As a workaround, we use hybrid modeling.

In 3D sketches, I'd like to color parts of wholly-defined sketches.

What about flattening bends (unbend) in synchronous?

Wire bending, not electrical, but of metal rods. We would like a flat pattern of circular and rectangular tubes, like sheet metal.

In family of parts table, when making a copy, can we sort the result by name?

A crash report for optimize, so we can tell where it isn't working. I'd like to know where it failed, not just that it did fail.

I'd like to do a counter-drill inside a hole -- in addition to being to already do counter-bores.

We make a lot of wire shelving, and sometimes it gets welded and then assembled. We'd like to be able to flatten the entire assembly.

Lofted flange in synchronous; we build lofted posts. SE: We are working on it, but it is pretty tricky.

I need to put in multiple slots, with corner details like reliefs (so we can cut it quicker). Whereas all holes are the same, every slot can be unique. We need a slot entity, and not just a modified hole.

Set a minimum flange distance for brake presses so that the distance cannot be violated. There should be an option for various gauges (thickness of material).

We cut a lot of tubes with lasers, including along bends. I'd like to design it without having to covert it into sheet metal and then construct it from there.

It is not possible to start drawing with an arc in synchronous for sheet metal. Our workaround is to start in ordered, or start by drawing a very short line. SE: Every bend in a synchronous sheet metal mode is calculated. The software does not know the difference between a curve and a bend. It needs the straight part to do the calculation. We are working on fixing this.

I'd like a dropper to copy colors from one part to another, like using the same green for all ground wires. SE: We are working on it, it will be called Inspect Color.

We can press Shift key for symmetry (and Space to switch between cut out and extrusion) in synchronous but the same does not work elsewhere in Solid Edge.

Further to that last point, I'd like to see more consistency between Solid Edge's different modes. SE: Some of that UI consistency we can do, some we cannot.

We'd like to make a flat pattern, add corner reliefs, add radiuses, and then push the reliefs back into the formed model, so we don't have to keep bending and unbending.

Is the speed being improved for holes? We have 500 or more holes in our sheet metal, and it can take 3-4 minutes in synchronous. SE: The fill pattern method is fastest in synchronous mode.

We need to model an involute for gear teeth. Right now we create an Excel sheet to control the sketch in Solid Edge. It has to be exact, because we cut with a laser cutter.

We would like to reverse the flange direction. SE: It is on the list.

On multi-bodies, I'd turn to turn off the display of some bodies. SE: Turn the body into construction to hide it.

Flatten digging teeth. We have to do it hit-and-miss because now we cannot figure out the flattened size. We can model them, but we cannot flatten them. SE: It sounds like you want conical and variable-radius bends; we'll start with conical.

Oct 26, 2016

Solidworks has the largest user base in the MCAD industry, with numbers ranging from over a half-million (commercial users) to 2.5 million (commercial + education). This makes it a target of competitors like Autodesk, Siemens, and even within Dassault Systems itself. They all want to attract Solidworks users, and to attract them the MCAD vendors need to be able to move over their files.

In the case of Solidworks and Solid Edge, users are in luck, because both CAD systems use the same modeling kernel, Parasolid. This makes translation "easier," although as you will see below, there are still lots of special cases that need to be handled carefully.

Siemens calls the translation process "migration." Solidworks Migration Tool uses the Solidworks automation layer to extract rich data. This means that you need to have Solidworks 2012 installed on the same computer as Solid Edge ST9. The newer the release of Solidworks, the better the translation (ie, more types of data are translated). Solidworks must be able to resolve all the links that Solid Edge is requesting as it opens the model file.

You can open the translated drawings in ordered or synchronous environment, but ST is recommended as it can manipulate the body, such as finding holes in bodies. The tool can import drawings, parts, and assemblies from Solidworks. Attributes that are extracted are stored in PLMXML files, which is an XML format created by Siemens that references geometry, which is stored in a Parasolid x_t file.

The translator supports the following features in Solidworks files:

Material definitions are converted from the Solidworks .sldmat file to Solid Edge .mtl file using the SWmat2SEmat.exe program.

Holes are converted with attributes such as thread data by converting the Solidworks .mbd hole database file to the Solid Edge hole table using the SEhholePipeTxtFromSW.exe program.

Assembly relationships (see figure below)

Families of assemblies: suppressed parts are migrated as FOA [family of assemblies] members.

Flexible assemblies: alternative position assemblies are migrated as FOA members.

Associated drawing files (new to ST9): geometry and text is translated using DXF format; drawings are kept associative to the 3D model

Migration is not instant, but can take 3-4 minutes even for small model. Mr Wathermax recommends starting with converting parts to get used to the process. "This is a data translator. You can't take apples and change them into oranges," because there are differences in the data structures in the two CAD program. If 99% of the data is translated, that's doing good, he figures.

Being able to translate drawings has been the big draw. But the job of writing the migration tool is not over, and additional functions are already planned for Solid Edge ST10.

Q&AQ: Is there a record of constraints in the log files?A: Yes, it does. The log file also reports number of threads found. A different log file records the assembly details found. Both Solidworks and Solid Edge generate log files. The key thing to search for are errors.

Q: Are custom file properties translated?A: Yes. But we don't get properties in features, such as descriptions in configurations.

Q: Does it place title block info into a background sheet?A: No, it places them on the foreground sheet.

Q: Does it handle display states in Solidworks [where parts are hidden by turning them off]?A: No. We bring over the part files over; if it is on in Solidworks, it is on in Solid Edge. But we bring over ones that are off, too. Five different display states are not going to be reproduced. A workaround is to convert display states to configuration data.

Q: If a client does a Pack-and-Go to send us everything in Solidworks folders, how does migration work?A: It does the assemblies first, then checks the parts needed. Clicking the top-level assembly is the best place to start. Do drafts last; they will hook up automatically.

Q: Iso views in Solidworks seem to embed a title; when translated, the text was embedded in the part, right-justified.A: Look at the AutoCAD (DXF) file and see if the problem is there.